Veere Di Wedding is not a f*cking chick-flick. The poster has made that f*cking clear. It needs to be taken f*cking seriously as a movie that holds universal value.
Noted.
Must it then look like a d*ck-flick in disguise?
Yes, it is therapeutic and subversive in that the leading ladies aren't batting their eyelids while gyrating to 'aap mujhe acche lagne lage' in mustard fields. Instead, they are cursing like sailors on a testosterone overdrive, while discussing their sex lives in a bar.
Though the thing is, once the novelty of our non-conformist potty-mouthed rebels wears off, you are left with nothing. Except disturbingly sexist profanities like ‘behn***d’ and ‘chu***a’. Dharmendra’s “Basanti, in kutto ke samne mat nachna’’ almost sounds kosher next to this.
To be fair, there's immense social capital to swearing:
1) It is a stress-buster.
2) It is traditionally associated with 'masculinity'. Thus, supplanting the same in a women-centred narrative is subversive.
And contrary to what puritans would like to believe, women curse too.
But must subversion look like rebellion without a cause? For those touting the trailer as “empowering”, here's my misgiving:
Veere Di Wedding, or at least the trailer for now, seems to be empowering the empowered. If Kareena is saying 'no' to certain things that don't sit well with her, it is because her choice is based on privilege. The privilege to say 'no'. If the four lovely women are seen discussing orgasms, hook-ups and other taboos, the fancy-shmanzy setting (a posh bar) isn't helping.
Their privilege is allowing them to revolutionise a lot of things that women bereft of the same privileges wouldn’t be able to.
In Veere Di Wedding, the urban Indian woman has arrived.
Wait, scrap that.
The urban Indian, privileged woman has arrived.
No, let's try again.
The urban Indian privileged woman, with desi obligations and aspirations of an American frat-boy, has arrived.
Or so it seems. We've yet to watch the movie which might prove me wrong.
P.S: I am not indulging in whataboutery. All I am saying is, I am not going to go to the theatre with 'takeaways' in mind. I am going to go watch a bunch of gorgeous ladies having fun. And that's that.
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